The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #12132   Message #93780
Posted By: Bryant
09-Jul-99 - 05:12 PM
Thread Name: Line from 'Henry Lee' (Young Hunting)
Subject: Lyr Add: HENRY LEE
Sure. Um, I'm doing this from memory and I change a phrase or two for clarity. (The 2nd line if the 1st stanza is a good case in point.) So this is not Justice's version word-for-word, but it's pretty close. Feel free to correct anything.

HENRY LEE

'Come down, come down my Henry Lee and stay all night with me.
The very best lodging you can afford would be far worse than me.'
'I can't come down, no I won't come down and stay all night with thee.
For the girl I have in that merry, green land I love her better than thee.'

She leaned herself against the fence just for a kiss or two
With a little penknife held in her hand she plugged him through and through.
'Come all you ladies in the town, a secret for me keep.
With a diamond ring held in my hand I never will forsake.'

'Some take him by his lily-white hand, some take him by his feet.
We'll throw him in this deep, deep well more than one hundred feet.
Lie there, lie there my Henry Lee 'till the flesh falls from your bones.
The girl you have in that merry, green land she waits for your return.'

'Fly down, fly down you little bird and alight on my right knee.
Your cage will be of purest gold in need of ???' [or "of purest gold with a door of ivory."]
'I can't come down, no I won't come down and alight on your right knee.
A girl who would murder her own true love would kill a little bird like me.'

'If I had my bended bow, my arrow and my string
I'd pierce a dart so nigh your heart your warble would be in vain.'
'If you had your bended bow, your arrow and your string
I'd fly away to that merry green land and tell what I have seen.'

That's it. Sorry if the lines are all run together. I can't figure out how HTML decides to do things sometimes.

Bryant

Line Breaks
added. Thanks, Bryant.
-Joe Offer-